TY - JOUR
T1 - A specific type of insulin-like peptide regulates the conditional growth of a beetle weapon
AU - Okada, Yasukazu
AU - Katsuki, Masako
AU - Okamoto, Naoki
AU - Fujioka, Haruna
AU - Okada, Kensuke
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding was received from JSPS Kakenhi 18H04815, 17H05938, 17K19381, and 19H04913 to YO and 18K0641700 to KO; (https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/index.html);Yamada Science Foundation to YO (http://www.yamadazaidan.jp/english.html); Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research Abroad from the JSPS to NO (https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-pd/ab.htm); Naito Foundation Subsidy for Dispatch of Young Researchers Abroad to NO (https://www.naito-f.or.jp/en/joseikn/jo_index.php?data=detail&grant_id=WAK). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Evolutionarily conserved insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling (IIS) has been identified as a major physiological mechanism underlying the nutrient-dependent regulation of sexually selected weapon growth in animals. However, the molecular mechanisms that couple nutritional state with weapon growth remain largely unknown. Here, we show that one specific subtype of insulin-like peptide (ILP) responds to nutrient status and thereby regulates weapon size in the broad-horned flour beetle Gnatocerus cornutus. By using transcriptome information, we identified five G. cornutus ILP (GcorILP1-5) and two G. cornutus insulin-like receptor (GcorInR1, -2) genes in the G. cornutus genome. RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated gene silencing revealed that a certain subtype of ILP, GcorILP2, specifically regulated weapon size. Importantly, GcorILP2 was highly and specifically expressed in the fat body in a condition-dependent manner. We further found that GcorInR1 and Gcor-InR2 are functionally redundant but that the latter is partially specialized for regulating weapon growth. These results strongly suggest that GcorILP2 is an important component of the developmental mechanism that couples nutritional state to weapon growth in G. cornutus. We propose that the duplication and subsequent diversification of IIS genes played a pivotal role in the evolution of the complex growth regulation of secondary sexual traits.
AB - Evolutionarily conserved insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling (IIS) has been identified as a major physiological mechanism underlying the nutrient-dependent regulation of sexually selected weapon growth in animals. However, the molecular mechanisms that couple nutritional state with weapon growth remain largely unknown. Here, we show that one specific subtype of insulin-like peptide (ILP) responds to nutrient status and thereby regulates weapon size in the broad-horned flour beetle Gnatocerus cornutus. By using transcriptome information, we identified five G. cornutus ILP (GcorILP1-5) and two G. cornutus insulin-like receptor (GcorInR1, -2) genes in the G. cornutus genome. RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated gene silencing revealed that a certain subtype of ILP, GcorILP2, specifically regulated weapon size. Importantly, GcorILP2 was highly and specifically expressed in the fat body in a condition-dependent manner. We further found that GcorInR1 and Gcor-InR2 are functionally redundant but that the latter is partially specialized for regulating weapon growth. These results strongly suggest that GcorILP2 is an important component of the developmental mechanism that couples nutritional state to weapon growth in G. cornutus. We propose that the duplication and subsequent diversification of IIS genes played a pivotal role in the evolution of the complex growth regulation of secondary sexual traits.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000541
DO - 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000541
M3 - Article
C2 - 31774806
AN - SCOPUS:85075721625
VL - 17
JO - PLoS Biology
JF - PLoS Biology
SN - 1544-9173
IS - 11
M1 - e3000541
ER -